


Sunset Song

by LadyRaritatum



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M, Marauders Era (Harry Potter), Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Other Ships Not Mentioned in Tags, i'm sorry in advance, jily, snape has 2 friends and one of them is lily, this will be long as hell be prepared, this will shred your heart (i hope), wolfstar, you don't want to see the planning documents i have for this fic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-20
Updated: 2021-01-20
Packaged: 2021-03-12 07:27:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28881696
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyRaritatum/pseuds/LadyRaritatum
Summary: 1971 seems like any other year. A group of 11 year olds begin their time at Hogwarts, as always. They're sorted into Houses, make friends and enemies, meet the people who will become their first love. They say it should be some of the best years of their lives - and in many ways, they'd be right. But none of them know just what they're in for: a war looms on the horizon, and the cost to them, and to the people they come to love, will be far too high.
Relationships: James Potter/Lily Evans Potter, Sirius Black/Remus Lupin





	Sunset Song

**Author's Note:**

> Hello and welcome! The initial idea for this story came to me back in 2012, and it's only been expanding ever since. Marauder-era fics have always been my favorite, and some of the inspiration for my own has come from: The Shoebox Project, by dorkorific & ladyjaida; Fairytales of Yesterday, by padfootandprongsy76, and the infamously unfinished The Life and Times, by Jewels5.
> 
> This story originally looked very different then than it does now, though some of the base elements are still there. Now, however, it is much longer and much more in-depth than I ever imagined, and I'm nowhere near done! I'll speak to that a bit more at the end of the first chapter, but for now, enjoy!

## PROLOGUE

**_Thursday, 24 June 1980_ **

The headstones glowed in the light of the waxing gibbous moon. Crickets chirped and fireflies blinked in the nearby bushes. A dog barked a few streets away but quickly settled down.

The street was quiet. The town was quiet. It was warm; summer had fully arrived. Children slept the sleep of the innocent, deep and true, dreaming of their upcoming summer holidays. Lights clicked off as parents finished their television programs, set down their books and papers, and headed to sleep.

In the graveyard, there was no one to witness a dark figure arrive suddenly with a near-silent pop. If one had been there, they would have thought his silhouette strange. Despite the heat, edges of a cape flapped lightly as he made his way to a particular site. Bending, he placed something down. He stood there a few moments longer, unmoving, then swiftly turned and retreated to the shadows and disappeared.

The moonlight continued to shine peacefully down on the graveyard. It bathed the vacated site in clear, white light, illuminating the three bundles of flowers and single paper bird resting at the foot of the headstone.

* * *

## Part I: Years 1-3, 1971-1974

#### CHAPTER I: WELCOME TO HOGWARTS

**_1 September 1971, 9:38 am, King’s Cross Station, Platform 9 ¾_ **

The crosswind through King’s Cross Station blew her unsecured hair about her face. DeeDee Williams reached up to brush it out of her eyes for the third time since arriving on Platform 9 ¾ and took a deep breath: this was it. She glanced to her right at her sister, whose eyes hadn’t stopped moving yet as she took in the station in its entirety, no doubt filing away every detail for analysis later that evening.

It was finally September 1st, and they were finally boarding the train that would take them to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Though Emily thought it a bit silly, DeeDee adored the regality of the full name. She could hardly contain her excitement to finally see the castle - she hoped it would live up to its name. She was sure it would.

Further down the platform, Stephen high-fived a few of his friends before joining them in moving toward the train. He was older than his sisters, a third year, and in Slytherin like their father. DeeDee idly wondered which house she would be sorted into, but was interrupted before she got far in her daydream.

“Okay, girls, do you have everything?” their mother began to run down the list. “All your books? Quills? Ink? Enough parchment? The Potions starter kit? What about your hairbrush? Shampoo? Toothbrush and toothpaste? Official robes to change into on the train? Sufficient pairs of -”

“Darling, don’t you suppose it’s a bit late for that?” their father cut off his wife with a soft smile before she got embarrassingly carried away. “You checked twice before even leaving the house this morning, and I don’t know how many times over the past week. I’m sure they’ve everything they need, and even if they find they’re missing something, we can just owl it to them.” His smooth, deep voice washed over his family, and he turned to his daughters. “Be sure to write us with your Sorting, and keep in touch all semester. We will miss you, of course,” he continued with a smile, “so we will love to hear anything, exciting or not, that happens.”

“I love you, my dears.” Shannon leaned down to give her girls one last hug before they boarded the train. DeeDee breathed in her mother’s scent, all vanilla mixed with nutmeg.

“Love you too, Mum.”

They gave their trunks to the porters, just keeping their carry-on with a change of clothes, and climbed aboard the train. The train whistle blew and DeeDee leaned out a window to wave at her parents, smiling and also waving from the platform. She watched them grow smaller as the train began to pull away. Ducking back inside, she turned back to speak to her sister. “Well, Em,” she began, but realized that in the time it took her to wave, Emily had disappeared. 

_I guess...I’m finding my own compartment then,_ she thought, her chocolate-brown eyes widening slightly at the prospect. _But I don’t know anybody else. Who will I sit with?_ She glanced around. A pretty, ginger-haired girl and a pale, dark-haired boy entered a compartment a little ways up. _They look like first years too, so they’re as good as any, I suppose._ She took one step, but stopped as two rowdy-looking boys stepped through that doorway as well. Or...perhaps not. She felt panic begin to set in, when suddenly Emily reappeared at her side.

“Sis! I found a compartment over this way. It’s got one girl in it already, but she said we could share. Come on!” Emily grabbed DeeDee’s hand and pulled her in the opposite direction. Dutifully, she followed, as ever allowing her older sister _(--just by two months, it really doesn’t matter--)_ make the decision for her.

This will be fun, she told herself. But she was less certain than she had been before.

— —

The Great Hall buzzed in anticipation as the new first years were marched in by Professor McGonagall and waited in the centre of the room to be sorted. DeeDee and Emily stood together, each looking all around the room in awe. While DeeDee was examining the ceiling, which she was amazed to discover was a deep purple-black color and covered in stars, the tattered hat on the stool at the front of the room opened its mouth and began to sing.

DeeDee’s attention immediately jumped to the hat. Her parents and brother had, of course, told the two sisters about the Sorting Hat, but some things can’t be fully explained, or appreciated, without seeing them for yourself. 

When the hat had finished its song, all of the students and professors clapped politely until Professor McGonagall quieted everyone down with a motion of her hands. She picked up a scroll, cleared her throat, and began.

“Avery, Maximilian” was the first name called. He was an unpleasant-looking boy, rather wide with a bit of a scowl. He was sorted into Slytherin, and the table was thumped appreciatively. DeeDee swallowed nervously and wished her name was higher in the alphabet. It would be some time before McGonagall would reach W.

Bates, Eddie and Catchlove, Greta were each sorted into Hufflepuff, with Black, Sirius heading to Gryffindor between them. DeeDee noticed that when Black was sorted, the Slytherin table began to whisper furiously, but one of the older students - a boy, very regal looking, with long, platinum-blonde hair - hushed his friends. Next up was Autumn Clarke, the girl DeeDee and Emily had shared a compartment with on the Hogwarts Express, who slid out of the crowd with an excited smile back at the pair. She sat on the stool for just a moment before the hat called out, “RAVENCLAW!” and she hopped down to join her new housemates.

DeeDee allowed her mind to wander, gazing around while more students were sorted. She drank in everything about the room, every corner seemingly overflowing with magic. There were rich tapestries hanging from the walls, a number of ghosts floating around, and a strange, cross-looking man standing toward the back of the room, holding a kitten. Her favorite part, however, was the ceiling, and her eyes kept being drawn back to it as if by some invisible force. She wondered whether it was some sort of charm that made it appear that way, and was just speculating whether the dorm rooms might have something similar when she realized they had reached the letter S.

Finally only a few students remained in the middle of the room to be sorted. A girl with curly, black hair named Bethany Waters was sorted into Hufflepuff, and then Professor McGonagall called out, “Williams, Delilah!”

Suddenly it was as if time had slowed to a crawl. Hardly daring to breathe, feeling as though she were moving through jello, DeeDee walked up to the stool where the Sorting Hat was waiting. She sat down, closed her eyes, and the professor placed the hat on her head.

“Well, well. Nice to meet you, Delilah,” the hat crooned in her head. “But you prefer DeeDee, don’t you?”

“Yes, I do; does that matter?” she thought, nerves growing by the second. 

“I thought so,” the hat agreed, ignoring her question. “Now where to place you?”

“My brother is in Slytherin…”

“Yes, he is. Do you want Slytherin?”

“Not really.”

“That’s probably best. You might enjoy Ravenclaw--”

“Like Mum,” DeeDee interrupted. “And that’s where Emily is hoping to be.”

“--but I don’t think that’s the best house for you, either,” the hat continued as if DeeDee hadn’t spoken. “No, I think you’ll do best in...HUFFLEPUFF!”

DeeDee opened her eyes and looked toward the Hufflepuff table, which was smiling and clapping and cheering for her. Her glance met that of Bethany, the girl sorted just previously, and she walked over to sit next to her. Bethany was smiling and when DeeDee reached the table, she reached out a hand and said, “Hi! I’m Bethany, but you can call me Beth.” DeeDee clasped her hand in Beth’s to shake it and replied with a grin, “I’m Delilah, but you can call me DeeDee.”

The two girls turned back to the front to watch Emily get sorted. DeeDee smiled when the hat announced, “RAVENCLAW!” She knew her sister would be very pleased to be sorted exactly as hoped. Once the very last student was sorted (Zakowski, Irene - Slytherin), Professor McGonagall waved her wand and the stool and hat floated over to the side of the room. She then walked around the head table toward her seat just left of center. As she did so, the man sitting in the large center chair stood up. 

DeeDee studied him carefully as he serenely waited for Professor McGonagall to return to her seat, his hands clasped in front of him. He looked very old - DeeDee couldn’t begin to guess, but she thought 90 years old, easily: his hair and beard were very long, and almost entirely grey throughout, though his beard contained traces that suggested his hair had once been a deep auburn. He wore amethyst purple robes that were decorated with a silver pattern which, upon closer inspection, seemed to be stars that actually twinkled. Atop his head was a stereotypical conical wizard’s hat of the same pattern as his robes, and perched on his slightly crooked nose in front of twinkling, bright blue eyes were a pair of half-moon glasses. McGonagall gracefully sat down just as DeeDee came to the conclusion: this man surely was the one and only Albus Dumbledore.

“Good evening. I am Headmaster Albus Dumbledore,” he began. “Welcome, first year students; we are pleased to have you join us in these hallowed halls. And welcome back, to the rest of you. I have more items of which to inform you, but no doubt you all, like I, am rather hungry, so for now - dig in!”

— —

**_Thursday, 2 September 1971_ **

By some miracle, all the first year students had a free period first thing Thursday mornings, so at precisely 10:15 AM DeeDee and Bethany picked a desk in the third row of what they supposed was the Transfiguration classroom. A cat sat upon the teacher’s desk at the front; DeeDee glanced around, but Professor McGonagall was not to be seen. She shrugged lightly and began to examine the room, waiting, when a flash of movement ahead of her drew her attention back. In front of where the cat had been sitting moments before, McGonagall now stood, arms folded, surveying her room.

“Welcome to First Year Transfiguration. I am Professor McGonagall, and you will address me as such. Let’s see if everyone successfully found our room, shall we?” McGonagall began to read down the list of names, marking down those absent. DeeDee began to zone out but was brought back by the sound of her name.

“Delilah Williams?”

DeeDee cringed inwardly. “It...it’s DeeDee,” she whispered with a slight waver.

“Beg pardon?” McGonagall raised her eyebrows in question.

“It’s DeeDee. I go by DeeDee, not Delilah,” she replied, with a little more confidence. Unlike that of her school, she did not like her own full name. Where _Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry_ sounded full-bodied and powerful and exciting, _Delilah_ sounded stuffy and old, and reminded her of unpleasant Boxing Days spent at her grandmother’s house and of the strong aroma of gardenias, mothballs, and slightly mouldy cheese. McGonagall peered at her over her rectangular glasses. “DeeDee. Yes. Welcome.” She made a note on her list, then placed it upon her desk before turning back to the class.

“Once again, this is _first_ _year_ Transfiguration, so Travis,” McGonagall called back, not unkindly - DeeDee turned to see a boy snap his head up from the desk on which it had been resting - “You may consider returning tomorrow, when I will be teaching your friends, unless you would rather repeat last year’s lesson.” A smattering of giggles came from across the room, and the boy, presumably Travis, turned red before rising from his seat to leave.

“Now then,” McGonagall continued, unfazed, “we shall begin.”

— —

**_Friday, 3 September 1971_ **

Lily Evans entered the basement Potions classroom and found him immediately. Her bright green eyes lit up, a huge grin broke across her face, and she fairly bounced up to one of the tables toward the front of the room, at which a quiet Slytherin boy was already patiently waiting.

“Sev!” she called cheerfully. “Oh, I’m so pleased we’re in this class together!” 

At the sound of her voice, the boy, Severus Snape, turned his pale face toward the approaching girl. He smiled a reserved, though no less warm, smile back at her. 

“Hi, Lily,” he replied, 

Lily dumped her books on the table next to her friend and pulled out the chair to sit down. She continued, seemingly without pausing for breath, “it truly is wonderful our houses are together this lesson, we’re sure to have a great time! From what you told me over the summer, I was already looking forward to this class, and now we can be partners!

“How was your first day of classes? Mine was brilliant! We had Transfiguration first in the morning, have you had that yet? Professor McGonagall is my head of house, of course, and she’s brilliant, though I don’t think I’d want to get on her bad side…” here Lily paused briefly, frowning slightly in concern for just a moment before continuing. “And I’m not sure about Herbology, yet, we had that right after lunch yesterday. I’ve never been terribly good with plants, I nearly killed my mother’s potted ivy by accident last year, but hopefully magic plants will be easier…

“Oh! But this morning, we had Charms, with Professor Flitwick; you know, the Head of Ravenclaw? Well,” Lily ducked her head and blushed slightly. “I don’t mean to brag or anything, but I was the first in our class to manage _wingardium leviosa,_ and Professor Flitwick told me I’d done a marvellous job - that’s really what he said, “marvellous!” and he awarded Gryffindor 15 points for it!”

Lily finally paused for a breath, allowing Severus to speak. “That’s great, Lily, I’m so happy for you!” the boy encouraged. “See, I told you you had nothing to worry about, I knew you’d be brilliant. It doesn’t matter at all that you didn’t know anything about magic before.”

“You’re right, of course. I don’t know what I was so nervous about now. There’s plenty of other muggleborn students like me.”

Severus smiled again, but if this smile was as much to convince himself of his words as to encourage Lily, she didn’t notice at all. For just then their Potions professor, a squat barrel of a man, introduced himself to the new first years as Professor Slughorn, and class began.

Across the room and back a few desks, a bespectacled boy with untidy dark hair was whispering to his desk partner, a boy with equally dark, but curlier, hair and regal features.

“Isn’t that the awful boy we met on the train on Wednesday?”

“I think so, he was a right git, wasn’t he.”

“The two of them must be friends from home, yeah?”

“I suppose they must be, though I can’t imagine why.”

“Perhaps they haven’t many neighbors, so she has to put up with him for her family’s sake.”

The second boy wrinkled his nose in understanding. “She seems too friendly than to just be tolerating him for family reasons,” he commented knowingly. “Looks to me like she just has poor judgement.”

The messy-haired boy sighed wistfully. “Shame that a girl as pretty as her would keep such awful friends.”

“There are some pretty people with absolutely rotten taste in friends. My cousins are shining examples.”

“Who are your cousins?” the chubbier boy with mousy brown hair turned around in his seat in front of the pair to ask.

“Bellatrix and Narcissa Black. Bella graduated last year, fortunately - she’s a real nightmare - but Narcissa is only a fourth year. You’ll meet her eventually, I’m sure. She started dating the truly horrible fifth year Slytherin prefect, Lucious Malfoy, at the end of last year. Family dinners this summer were absolutely insufferable.”

“That makes your uncle Cygnus Black, right? My parents can’t stand him, Dad says he’s horribly mean and constantly blocking things from going through at the Ministry unless they’d benefit himself somehow.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised at all if that were true. To be honest, I can’t stand them either. That’s probably why I ended up in Gryffindor, instead of Slytherin like the rest of them! Ruddy snakes.” 

The trio giggled, but were interrupted by Professor Slughorn, who, finally having stopped talking about his former students long enough to take roll for his new ones, called out, “Peter Pettigrew!”

The chubbier boy whipped around in his seat, cheeks heating up guiltily. “Here, sir.”

“Hmm, nice of you to join us. Let’s not make a habit of this, shall we?”

“N- no, sir, I won’t,” Peter gulped.

Professor Slughorn smiled and moved on. “James Potter!”

James had taken the moment that the professor was speaking with his friend to straighten up in his seat, push his glasses further up his nose, and make an albeit brief attempt to smooth his unruly hair. “That’s me, sir,” he answered with a charming smile.

“Ah, Mr. Potter, I should have known. You look so like your father, you know; we were in school together for a few years, and I had the pleasure of catching up with him at a Potioneer’s conference back in ‘32. Of course I do so admire the work he had done with hair potions…”

— —

Dear Mum & Da,

Guess what! You’ll never believe it. I was sorted into Ravenclaw! Okay, you probably believe it. But it’s wonderful, it’s the best news EVER and I’m so so happy I’ll be just like you Mum! I was going to write sooner but there’s been so much going on I’ve hardly had time to even breathe! Hogwarts is brilliant just like you always said, and our tower is the absolute coolest. I met a girl named Autumn and she’s in Ravenclaw too and she’s really fun and brilliant and we’re going to have the best time. The prefects for our house were sooo serious but they were still pretty nice, they told us about the riddles being our common room password and one of them, Benny, told us that if we’re struggling to figure them out we can ask the older students but only for the first few weeks, because we are Ravenclaws after all so we had better figure out how they work real quick because they won’t be willing to help us forever but that’s okay because between me and Autumn I’m sure we’ll be able to figure them all out. Our house ghost is really mopey and kind of snooty but the older kids say she’s always like this at the beginning of the year, and she’ll warm up to us eventually. She kind of reminds me of Aunt Shelly (sorry Mum I know you don’t like it when I say things like that but really she does I swear it’s how she acts like she always knows better than you do just because she’s been _around_ so much longer). 

Anyway I love classes so far, History of Magic is fascinating and I adore Charms, I was the first one in class to get the wand movement right for levitating stuff! I’ve gotta go now though because Autumn is simply dying for food, as if we haven’t eaten in years. Everything tastes great here, but of course not as good as yours, Mum. I’ll write you again soon, I promise! Love to Sunny, and I miss you both. 

Xoxoxo,

Em

Dear Mum & Da,

In an interesting turn of events, I’ve been sorted into Hufflepuff. Didn’t see that one coming, hm? It’s pretty nice, I guess; you were right about how big Hogwarts is. I can tell it’ll be really easy to get lost. I was almost late to potions yesterday because I was having trouble finding my way through the dungeons, but then I saw Em and another Ravenclaw girl Autumn and we were all able to find the room together. The professors are all pretty neat people, and Headmaster Dumbledore seems great.

Before the Sorting ceremony, I met a girl named Lily, and she seemed really nice but she was sorted into Gryffindor so I suppose I won’t see her very often. We don’t have many classes together, just Charms and Transfiguration.

I do like our common room, it’s cozy and has a lot of fluffy couches and is right near the kitchens so I can get lots of snacks. I found it by accident yesterday and I was talking to the house-elves who make all the food. They’re really sweet, and they remind me of home, especially Twinkle who’s a lot like Sunny.

I’ve got to go eat dinner, though, before it’s over, and I want to get started on my homework for Monday. I’ll write again soon.

Love and hugs,

DeeDee

——

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi again! I've got 3 main parts planned for the story: Part 1, as mentioned above, will span years 1-3; Part 2 is years 4-5; Part 3 is years 6-7 and a little beyond. Most of the events will take place in the last few years, so Part 1 should move relatively quickly, but one of my goals was always to write something that covered all seven years the Marauders & friends were at Hogwarts. There's an awful lot of formative stuff in those early years that, personally, I find quite fascinating.
> 
> So far I've got year 1 just about wrapped up, and large parts of the rest of Part 1 drafted. I'm not terribly consistent or chronological when I'm writing, I'm afraid, but as I want to actually publish this story sometime this century, I'll do my best to keep on truckin'! 
> 
> As far as the tags are concerned, I'll probably edit/add as I go; this is a Jily and Wolfstar fic, but as always, it will take some time to actually get there, so I don't want to spoil too much ;)
> 
> I think that's everything for now. I hope you stick around, I may be biased but I think this story might be worth your while!

**Author's Note:**

> Do leave a comment, I'd love to hear your thoughts! You can also find me as LadyRaritatum on basically all the usual places. Have a lovely day and thanks for reading!


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